At UFC 300 on April 13th, Max Holloway makes his second appearance at lightweight as he takes on Justin Gaethje for the ‘BMF’ title.
Max Holloway‘s last fight came in August of last year when he took on Chan Sung Jung in Singapore, finishing the durable ‘Korean Zombie’ in round three. It marked ‘Blessed’ Holloway’s first finish since 2018.
The 32-year-old has only competed at 155lbs once before during his 28-fight UFC tenure, and that was an interim lightweight title fight against Dustin Poirier back in 2019.
This time, Holloway has seemingly put on a lot more size than his unsuccessful move up to 155lbs in 2019 and could add himself to the title mix with what would be a huge win against Justin Gaethje.
The lightweight title picture becomes clearer with UFC 300
Although Gaethje versus Holloway comes higher up the card, there is another big fight at lightweight that could determine who fights for the title next.
Charles Oliveira takes on Arman Tsarukyan in what has been labeled as a ‘number one contender’ fight.
At UFC 299 just a month ago, Dustin Poirier pulled off an upset win after knocking out Benoit Saint-Denis in the second round. Following that lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev, seemingly decided that his next title defense would come against ‘The Diamond’.
After posting on his social media this past weekend that ‘Islam is next’, Poirier appeared on the This Past Weekend Podcast and admitted that he is yet to be officially offered the title fight with Islam Makhachev in June.
Makhachev has made it clear that he wants to defend his title in June, and the UFC has recently announced they are returning to Newark, New Jersey, on June 1st.
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With Poirier yet to be officially offered the next title shot, the UFC may be waiting for the culmination of UFC 300 to see who is most deserving of the title fight.
Max Holloway confused by Islam Makhachev’s return timeline
The Russian’s last fight came in October at UFC 294, where he rematched Alexander Volkanovski, who was coming in on just two weeks’ notice.
Since then, Volkanovski has fought Ilia Topuria in February, despite Makhachev knocking him out. This is something Max Holloway is confused about, questioning why Volkanovski has been able to fight since then, but Makhachev hasn’t.
“You (Islam Makhachev) should’ve fought Justin (Gaethje) in February.” Holloway told Mighty YouTube channel. “Why did the guy you knocked out turn around so fast to fight in February when you were healthy? You should’ve turned around for February.
“If you really wanted to fight you would’ve turned around and fought in February, it makes no sense to make the guy who got brutally ko’d to turn around in February.”
Islam Makhachev was reportedly offered a fight with welterweight champion, Leon Edwards, at UFC 300, but he turned it down because of it clashing with Ramadan.
“Everybody knew you couldn’t fight during Ramadan. He’s complaining like ‘I can’t get fights’, I’m like, you’re only fighting when around the times you want to fight, it’s not that you can’t get fights, you’re not taking the fights that are offered because of certain things.” Holloway added.
The 32-year-old champion’s next title defense is unclear at this moment, as the four lightweights competing at UFC 300 are unlikely to be able to make the two-month turnaround for June unless they score a quick finish.